


Self-Indulgent Political Nonsense

by DevineMandate



Category: Cormoran Strike Series - Robert Galbraith
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-29
Updated: 2020-06-09
Packaged: 2021-02-27 14:00:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,636
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22018273
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DevineMandate/pseuds/DevineMandate
Summary: In which the author tries to process his feelings about J.K. Rowling's recent tweet in support of Maya Forstater.
Comments: 40
Kudos: 11





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is me on a moral soapbox, and there are many of you who will disagree strenuously with me, but I don't care. I'm going to be bitterly didactic here. Feel free not to read any of my work if you disagree with me, and if you agree, cheers. Look up "Maya Forstater Rowling" on Google if you are in the dark here.
> 
> ETA 12/30: I note per ThereWasStillTime's comment that it's more likely Robin would be the incensed one and Strike the one in support of Forstater's beliefs, but I will leave it as is, non-canon compliant. As I said in the comment, Rowling's femininity and my masculinity made it simple for me to write it the way I did (with Robin as her surrogate in the story and Strike as mine), plus I haven't re-read the books in years. :P

Business hours were long past, but Strike and Robin were still at work. Both of them were looking forward to finishing up the things they needed to do and transitioning to leisure for the evening, but both of them also were enjoying each other’s company very much.

Robin was streaming the BBC via the internet and there was a story about a woman named Maya Forstater who had been let go from her job for her (from Strike’s perspective) disgusting views about the nature of sex and gender: she believed (as far as Strike could tell) that sex was immutable, that essentially trans people were lying to themselves, or were a lie in and of themselves, and it made Strike’s blood boil. She had lost her job for her views, and the court had upheld the decision by her employer.

Robin said, “I think it’s a shame that this Forstater woman got fired and is now labeled a bigot for something she really believes, and frankly that I really believe.”

“What?” said Strike, reeling, certain he must have heard her wrong. _Robin_ , who championed the victimised and downtrodden, wouldn’t be close-minded this way, would she?

“I mean, call yourself whatever you like, and do what you want with consenting adults, but isn’t saying that sex isn’t real naive?”

“‘Call yourself’...? Is that truly what you think Robin? That these people are labeling themselves in a way that’s false? That it’s some delusion inside their head that they’re trans people?”

“Oh, I’m sure they believe what they’re saying about themselves. I just think that there’s no denying the essential facts of sex at birth. I also think that Maya is being victimised as a woman, that her sex is part of why people are so dead set against her. If a man said these things, he’d be given a lot more credence. But tell me your point of view.”

Strike was truly flabbergasted. Never, not once, had he encountered anything in Robin that he would have called ugly or wrongheaded to the detriment of society. But here they were. The words that she had voluntarily said could not be called anything but ugly or wrongheaded in his mind.

“My ‘point of view’…?” Strike tried to reign in his emotions and approach this as logically as he could. “Well...let me start by saying that I can’t speak for the trans community. I’ve had the benefit of being a cis, white, straight, right-handed male my entire life and I will not claim to understand the intricacies of trans people's struggles. My point of view is that the scientific community, doctors, scientists, psychiatrists, have overwhelmingly come down on the side that being transgender is legitimate, biological, and rational. My point of view is that people who embrace this part of themselves and tell the world about it are putting themselves in mortal danger. Why would they do this if it weren’t something essential about themselves they felt the world _had_ to know so that they could be true to themselves and the world? They put their lives on the line to be who they are, and often enough they’re assaulted or killed for it. They don’t do that on a whim, so that they can ‘call’ themselves something they’re not. They do it so they can be who they really are. Furthermore, I think this argument that men will use the excuse of being transgender to go into women’s bathrooms and ogle or rape them is beyond credulity. Overwhelmingly, violence is done _to_ trans people, not by them. Find me five cases where someone who was a trans man or who was claiming to be a trans man did something odious like that, and maybe I’d start to mull this part over more.”

“Oh, Cormoran, I’d never claim that people who are trans commit violence with any regularity. That’s so extremist and nasty, but I think there’s something naive about claiming that what you were born as, or to be more explicit, what you were born _with_ doesn’t have an impact on you or the way the world perceives you.”

“Ah, there we are then,” said Strike. “If someone was born with a penis, that means they’re a man and that’s the final word. Do I hear you properly?”

“Yes, Cormoran, that’s about right.” She looked defiant now, like she was digging in and wouldn’t move.

Strike purposefully lowered his voice and flexed his hands so that the full force of his lava hot anger would not be directed at Robin. “I will not deny that the way people appear often defines the way society treats them, that if I had breasts and a higher voice that I’d be treated differently from the way I am now, but Robin, there are cases of people born with the supposed genetic male designator, the XY chromosome, that ended up giving birth to chirldren. All kinds of crazy things can happen with the body and genetic coding. Is it so hard to believe that someone born with a penis could really be a woman in their mind, heart, and soul? Isn’t it possible that sexuality and gender are along a continuum and not binary?” He was no longer able to keep his voice low, beyond caring if he was upsetting Robin, who was looking defensive and angry. “There are plenty of people born with a penis AND a vagina for fuck’s sake. And another thing. Robin, I served with both a trans man and a trans woman in the army. In each of their cases, and again I won’t claim to really know what is happening inside a trans person’s head and body, they were born with the “wrong” set of genitalia or had breasts when they felt they shouldn’t and vice-versa. And I have to tell you, that trans man and that trans woman were, in their own eyes and in mine, as much a man and woman respectively as you and I are.”

His chest was heaving, and he would start to say things he regretted if he didn’t leave soon, but he still had to say three more things he knew would hurt her where it counted.

“Three more things and then I’m done,” he said. “1) When I first met Charlotte Campbell, that avowed witch from the underworld, she was more open-minded about the trans community than I was at the time, and she played a large part in opening my eyes. My mother had been a staunch defender of trans folks and their right to be who they were, but I think I still felt like you back when I started uni, and it took Charlotte to help make me a better person. I never thought I’d see the day when Charlotte was more kind and open-minded than you about anything at all.” He perceived hurt and anger in Robin’s eyes and he relished it. “2) I wouldn’t have been surprised to find out Matt had this point of view, he was such a wanker, but it breaks my heart that you feel this way, and it makes me wonder if this wasn’t perhaps something you shared with him. I couldn’t see what you had in common, but now I wonder if this was part of it. 3) I have seen you defend trapped, helpless people counter to my own wishes and to the detriment of your career, and even though I was angry, there was part of me that respected how staunchly you believed you were right and were willing to do whatever it took to make the right thing happen. Well...I’m the one who believes I’m right this time, _staunchly_ , and you can’t make me move on this. To be frank, you are supporting a bigot and her nasty, extremist point of view, and I’m properly ashamed for you. I’m so angry and disappointed with you. Maybe tomorrow I’ll be able to look you in the eye and see the woman I respect so much, but right now, I can’t even stand to look at you anymore. Good night, Robin.”

Strike limped out of his office without looking at her and up the stairs to his flat and slammed the door behind him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I cannot tell you how depressed I was to read Rowling's tweet. Her words completely sunk my joy and anticipation at her being very close to the end of writing book 5 (per her statement at the Robert F Kennedy Human Rights award ceremony where she gave a speech earlier this month). She is older than I am, but not by so many years as to let me define this as a "generational" point of view thing like I might with someone the age of my or my wife's parents. I'm not sure what I'll do. It's a pretty meaningless, utterly symbolic gesture to not give a billionaire a few more dollars, but I might find I need to get book 5 from a library rather than Amazon or my local bookstore. Such a tremendous letdown from the woman who wrote the Harry Potter series, books that are about acceptance and tolerance and accepting that people are defined more by the choices they make and who they become later in life rather than the traits they are born with. It strikes me as the height of irony that Rowling would espouse this point of view.
> 
> Also, if anyone has a legitimate gripe with my wording as far as proper terminology or the right way to express my support, let me know. I am willing to learn and only have a few trans people in my life at the moment, so my education is far from complete.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Time to open up this can of worms again and shoot myself in the foot some more! (JKR insists on doing the same, after all.)
> 
> I considered “ficifying” the following with Robin as the hurt party and Strike as the Forstater supporter, but I think it would be presumptuous of me (as a man) to wade in to that minefield and “speak” for women who have been raped or assaulted. No, I can’t do that, so an essay is what I can do.

As a cis, heterosexual, white, right-handed male who is happy in his fairly hairy body, I felt sick reading Rowling’s tweet supporting Maya Forstater and Forstater’s attitude on sex and/or gender, and I’ve felt sick at her apparent lack of willingness to examine or adjust her point of view since. That’s about as much as there is to say about it for me (because I have the privilege of being a minority in no sense of the word), but that’s not how much there is to say for the communities of people who felt betrayed by her legitimization of [incredibly unscientific](https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/voices/stop-using-phony-science-to-justify-transphobia/) transphobic speech.

When I think of how my anger and despair must pale in the face of the anger and despair of transgender and other LGBTQIA+ folks...my pain is like swallowing a drop or two (or however much is scientifically accurate) of arsenic and feeling like my stomach is upset for a little while. Their pain is like being hooked up to an IV machine that keeps pumping poison into their system over the course of their entire lives, such that they must either grow tolerant of the poison or die.

So I’m just one more mansplaining, liberal asshole right now, sorry. I wouldn’t do this if I didn’t think it matters. This is a tiny and fairly insignificant corner of the internet, the Strike fandom on AO3, but some of the series’s biggest fans congregate here. I’ve obviously been left in no doubt that many of her readers share Rowling’s attitude in the main, and I just…I don’t know. I guess I want the few trans folks who might be reading this to know that some of us recognize the ugliness here (and in the depiction of trans female Pippa in The Silkworm…whom Strike threatens with rape in prison, noting her “pre-op” status…and the author seems to find this amusing or clever). I want them to know that some of us who wield power (socioeconomically speaking) want to use it to help them in some way, and I want folks who sympathize with Rowling’s POV to begin to see why these attitudes are hurtful, though I can’t claim to think I’ll change any minds. 

There is room for debate on some things IMO, and I hope I have the willingness to examine or adjust my own point of view since I have accused Rowling of not being willing to do so. In the comments of the first chapter of this…fic?...Angie notes the consideration of sports and fair competition. I admit that the idea of a man (so assigned at birth) transitioning to a woman and wanting to play a physical game with other women could be unfair. There has also been, however, [at least one situation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mack_Beggs) where an assigned girl transitioning to a boy was forced to compete against only girls despite his desire to compete against other boys (and IMO, that might have been unfair to the females he was competing against, but that’s not really his fault, he just wanted to wrestle competitively and this is how he was allowed to do so in high school). In general, I don’t know the answer to that one, but it’s just one of many areas of legislation that will need to be addressed as this community gets more accepted over the coming decades. These legal/fairness points are secondary in my eyes, though, to the basic considerations of humanity, and allowing for the fact that appearances are not necessarily indicative of a person’s essence. I think this is where the real debate is, at least, as JKR has sometimes shown nominal, [if passive](https://twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/890483440801517568), support for the idea that trans people’s rights are important and valid, but sticks to her guns on the idea that “sex is real” and apparently immutable, and has shown herself to be amused by or in agreement with people who talk about men in skirts using the women’s toilet. “Middle-aged moment,” indeed. Lord have mercy.

Transgender people aren’t playing dress-up or pretend (“Dress however you please. Call yourself whatever you like,” says JKR, writing off the concerns of millions of people so fucking BLITHELY). The findings of one study show that half of transgender folks have faced assault in one form or another. Forty percent have attempted suicide at some point in their lives. [Forty fucking percent](https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/publications/suicidality-transgender-adults/). This isn’t a community you enter on a whim or for the perks, and this isn’t a group of people you mock, demean, belittle, or minimize unless you want blood on your hands. How many trans people’s suicides were and are directly or indirectly related to Rowling’s tweet in support of Forstater? How many Harry Potter fans gave in to utter despair when a seeming champion of the downtrodden marginalized them so casually? I don’t know, but I’d wager my life the number wasn’t zero.

For me, one of the most unsupportable arguments here is the whole “But they’ll go in the women’s restroom and rape women!” (or allow cis men to pretend they're trans and rape women) thing. Who is actually raped or assaulted in restrooms and changing rooms today? Transgender folks (not cis women) face the highest rate of rape in that scenario. What is stopping a cis man from entering a women’s restroom now and raping a cis woman? Nothing, it happens already on occasion. Rapists aren’t typically held back by gender-assigned spaces or lightly-policed rules. Is there honestly a belief that horrible men will en masse find this venue a way to attack women? Why? Is there honestly a belief that if a male rapist dresses as a woman and goes into a women’s restroom or changing room, he’ll get no questions and be more easily able to get away with it? Statistics seem to bear out that there is more aggression against and more violence committed against trans folks at a statistical rate level, than any other LGBTQIA+ group. If a man dresses as a woman or puts on makeup to go in the restroom, that’s more likely to get people to notice and shame him than it is to allow access. And also, what’s to stop a man from dressing up as a woman and going into the restroom right now other than social stigma? That barrier does not exist; this kind of thing happens, though at [incredibly low rates](https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/politics-government/article70255967.html). When transgender folks use the restroom of the gender with which they identify, they are in no way increasing the danger inherent in being a woman. Instances where a trans person attacks a non-trans person in a bathroom basically [do not exist](https://www.mic.com/articles/114066/statistics-show-exactly-how-many-times-trans-people-have-attacked-you-in-bathrooms#.2cqXYFx6W).

One of my closest relatives (a cis woman, to be clear) has been raped twice (and supports trans rights unwaveringly). I’m not trying to pretend sexual assault isn’t prevalent or to make light of the opportunity for horrid men (and some women) to abuse a well-intentioned law. I am trying to prove that such a law does essentially nothing to increase the chances of sexual assault by or against anyone.

One more thing on this topic. What was the last great national (United States) debate among people regarding desegregation of bathrooms? You guessed it--white people opposed to the idea of sharing bathrooms with black people used fear mongering to support their cause. What was one of their main arguments? That white women were more in danger of being [raped by black men](https://slate.com/human-interest/2015/11/anti-trans-bathroom-propaganda-has-roots-in-racial-segregation.html) if this desegregation occurred. Sound familiar?

On a side note and back to our shared ground of Cormoran Strike, consider that the entire series’s romantic setup (which is really fun, obviously—I’ve written a few fics on the topic, you might have noticed) is extremely gender normative. Robin is beautiful and slim with light, uncommonly colored hair and large breasts (yes, this appeals to me). Strike is ugly and overweight (men are allowed to be fat and good in JKR’s world, but the only woman in her canon that is both good and fat is Molly Weasley) with a dark, coarse head of hair, muscles for days, and one of the hairiest bodies in all of literature (yes, this obviously appeals to a lot of people, though I do note that many fics sexualizing Strike go ahead and flatten his tummy some with diet and exercise…we’ll see if JKR does the same). They both “present” in a way that leaves no doubt of their sex/gender. This isn’t evil on its face or anything, it just gets at the sexuality of her series being rooted in stereotypes, and gives us a clearer picture of Rowling’s attitude on sex/gender where men are manly, hairy, gruff men and women are womanly, smooth, sensitive women.

To be fair, I’ve enjoyed this stereotyping very much, and am as ready and excited for these two characters to go ahead and just fuck already as I have been for just about any potential romantic pairing in the history of entertainment. It’s a shame that’s been poisoned a little for many of us, but it’s a goddamn tragedy that this woman (who wrote an entire series that she herself described as an argument for tolerance) appears to have turned her back on (or even gone to war against) one of the communities that could use her support the most. Allowing for the idea that people can look like one thing and be another is not revolutionary, and recognizing that trans men and women are who they say they are does not somehow reduce or endanger the rights of cis women. To the contrary: we can only truly be free if and when we all are free.

Now to the more AO3-centric portion of this message.

Folks who feel they cannot visibly support or enjoy my work because of my opinions or the way I express them: I’d be a hypocrite to be offended, given I plan to get _Troubled Blood_ from my local library instead of Amazon. However, just as I plan to continue reading JKR’s work without directly supporting the author or her charity of choice, I hope you’re able to separate my work from my opinionated, arrogant, sanctimonious, dickish self, and enjoy it for what it is, regardless of who wrote it, just sans kudos and comments. Read “Course He Does” if you haven't. I’m proud of that one, and I think it fairly likely you’ll enjoy it if you take the work on its own.

To those who've continued to enjoy my work publicly despite our differences (and I do see you), cheers!

Folks who agree with me, cheers!

LunaBell2013, whoever you may be, whatever other handle you have in this fandom: I hope there are no hard feelings, and I’m sorry to have upset you either with my work or my comments. If I knew for certain who you “really” were, I wouldn’t stop throwing kudos on your work. I have a guess but I won't speculate here other than to say I suspect I _have_ thrown kudos on your work in the past few months--privately let me know if you want me to stop doing so and I won't tell anyone or put you on blast or otherwise interact with you again if that is your preference. You speak for a significant contingent here, the majority even, and I respect your bravery in championing that point of view. All the best to you.

Wanna know how pathetic I am? (Beyond what you might already think, I mean.) There is a part of me that's sorry I wrote this thing due to the depreciation I see (and will see) in kudos. Like "Damn, maybe that story coulda hit like 60 if I'd have just shut the fuck up or maybe not been such a dick about it." But that would be a pathetic reason to be silent about something as important as this. Tried to be less of a dick this time, anyway.

(Side note for starting authors on AO3 from my experience: want kudos? Write a lengthy story where there’s some decent emotional tension and they get together at the end. Want returning hits over time? Write pornography. :D I mean, it is HILARIOUS to me how many hits the last bit of smut I wrote has had in the last few months compared to anything else…glad it’s helping someone or several someones out. :D )

Allowing people to be who they are (if they are not harming anyone), without regard for appearances or preconceptions, and loving them despite the differences we have or the philosophical debates that arise, is a great aspirational goal for humanity. It's certainly something I should strive for more than I have, as it would behoove me to be more tolerant of what I perceive as other people's intolerance if things are going to move in the direction I want them to move. I find the idea that “no one is right or wrong” on this topic odious, however. “Good people on both sides,” you might say, to quote one powerful dickhead on the topic of racism. There isn’t a debate to be had that certain aspects of racism are “right” or “good”, is there? I don’t want to be friends if you think so.

Still, I hope folks found this more civil than my last word on this topic. I might or might not address any new comments that might appear on this thing, depending on if it makes my ass too weary and/or angry and/or sad. Otherwise, I'm done now.

**Author's Note:**

> Repeat: if anyone has a legitimate gripe with my wording as far as proper terminology or the right way to express my support, let me know. I am willing to learn and only have a few trans people in my life at the moment, so my education is far from complete.


End file.
